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Mer Fashion
Unlike what humans, or Terragoggs typically imagine, merpeople do wear clothing. Women typically wear gowns, dresses, sometimes skirts, tops and shirts, men, tunics, jackets and so forth. Clothes are typically made of sea silk or sea flax. Fashion vary throughout the mer realms, not merely due to style and culture, but also for practicality and uses in everyday life. Miromaran Fashion Sea silk is common in Miromara, though sea flax is worn too. Miromarans appear to take extreme pride in their clothing and appearance, even the less wealthy pay attention to the detail on their clothes. Carlos and Elena Aleta Roja were farmers, though they appear wealthy enough, yet their clothes were of high quality enough so that two royals- Serafina and Mahdi- could wear them, decades later at their betrothal. Sera wore a sea silk gown in pale green with three-quarter sleeves, a square neckline and a skirt that 'gracefully skims her curves'. She also had a brilliant blue starfish in her hair as an ornament. Mahdi wore a dark blue sea silk jacket with a bright yellow anemone. Elena wore a pretty blue sea flax gown. In the Royal Court Needless to say, fashion in the royal court is far more eleborate than that of ordinary Miromarans. Serafina's own dressing gown is a white sea-silk robe embroidered with gold thread, capiz shells and seed pearls. Her mother is less ornamental in her fashions as she had little time for trivialities, but Isabella also made sure what she wore stood out and made an impression on others, including with the indigo sea silk gown, a ceremonial breastplate made of blue abalone shells to show that she is not someone to be trifled with, and that she had strength, and a jewelled golden crown as a symbol of her status. Serafina is required to wear exquisite clothes, such as the richly embroidered brocade mantle in deep green embroidered with copper thread, red coral, pearls and emeralds under a simple pale green sea silk gown. In Deep Blue and Dark Tide however, she states that she is not overly fond of the heavy gowns and jewels that required 'their own security detail' because they are so valuable. Portia Volnero's clothes show that she places a great deal of importance in her appearance in the eyes of others, as it shows her power and status. She always looked beautiful right to the very end, wearing a regal purple gown during Serafina's Dokimí and a resplendant gold sea silk gown during Lucia's. Lucia's clothes are more showy and elaborate, to reflect her vanity. She does not care for ruling the realm, as she mentions that she mostly leaves that to her parents, and adores gowns and jewels. She wore a shimmering, eye-catching gown of silver during Serafina's Dokimí, a midnight-blue one during her own. In Dark Tide, she wore a shimmering grey eyeshadow, a dusting of sparkly, silver ground mother-of-pearl on her lips, a deep grey dress and diamond crown, earrings and necklace. Previously she wore a gown made of thousands of abalone disks and a stunning saphhire set into a platinum headband, just above her widow's peak. In the Lagoon, she wore a clingy, low-cut purple gown, a lavender one when she met with her parents in Sea Spell and tried on countless gowns in preparation for her wedding. One was a clingy pale green embroidered with seed pearls and her selected one was a sheath of dark green sea silk stitched with slices of sliver-thin emeralds that overlapped like fish scales and caught the light. Her clothes served to emphasise just how preoccupied with her appearance, she was and that her vanity and her need for attention truly played a major part in her life. One of the reasons she envied Sera was because of all the clothes and jewels the latter wore as Principessa. Atlantica Becca shows little about fashion in Atlantica as she is practical and unconcerned with trivialities. She did, however wear a pearl necklace and a pair of gold-rimmed glasses in Deep Blue. She mostly wore a jacket. Qin Little is known about Qin fashion as Ling was by nature, a practical person. Qin is presumably strongly influenced by Asian fashion. She did, however wear her hair long, and had a red sea silk jacket as her typical wear. Red clothing might be common, because in China, it symbolizes good luck. Matali Matali is strongly influenced by Indian fashion. Neela wears saris and the one she wore at Serafina's Dokimí was a dark pink one with a sea silk wrap and a top and skirt made of tiny anomia shells stitched onto tulle. Neela also wore earrings, rings, bracelets, a belt with a jewelled buckle and long prong and a ruby necklace and an underskirt. She wore a yellow one on arrival in Miromara and was a creative designer. Her goal was to open a boutique which she achieved. Her uncle Emperor Bilaal wore a yellow, high-collared jacket, and a turban in fuschia studded with pearls, emeralds and a ruby as big as a caballabong ball, Mahdi wore a turquoise sea silk jacket and a red turban. It was mentioned that Neela was often required to wear pink, which she hated, but was insisted upon. Ondalina As Ondalina lies in perpetual arctic weather, it is less practical to wear elaborate sea silk, and more to wear seal parkas, such as the case with Astrid, who wore a sealskin vest embroidered with silver thread (possibly to show her status as the powerful admiral's daughter), along with a scabbard made of sealskin to hold her weapons. She later wears a sealfur parka. Astrid was disorientated to wear a sea silk gown in black trimmed with polished jet at the neckline and hem and long tapering sleeves. It was the most magnificent garment she had seen but she felt it was very impractical. It was only throughout the duration of her time with Orfeo that she wore such ornate clothing. Her mother Eyvör wore a walrus-skin coat. Freshwaters The Freshwaters are diverse. Manon Laveau is mentioned as wearing a white tunic, a red reedcloth skirt and a belt studded with river and mussel pearls, passed down from the first Swamp Queen. Mer hair and cosmetics Mermaids typically wear their hair long, unless they are swashbucklers, or in disguise. Sera has her hair cut when disguising herself, Astrid, in a show of rebellion, chops of her long, platinum-blonde hair and braids. Squid ink is used as eyeliner and mother-of-pearl is ground as well, for eyes and lips. Ground mussel shell is also used for the eyes and lips. Jewels Mer people seem to have an abundance in jewels as not even the wealthiest of Terragoggs on land, are able to cover their clothing completely in precious stones, even royalty, like Infanta Maria Theresa. Lucia wore a dress made of abalone disks and her wedding gown is covered in emeralds, sliced thinly and overlapping like fish scales. Jewels like abalone and mother-of-pearl are often ground as cosmetics. Swashbucklers Swash or Swashbucklers 'flip a fin' at society and love wearing black and grey, in edgy styles and with piercings, often at the tail fin. In disguise, Neela wore a tattered lace top, a voluminous sea silk skirt and a military jacket fastened with rusty fish hooks in black. Her earrings are fish-hooks and she had a shark tooth necklace on a fishing line and a black coral belt. Her bag is inked in silver: Anne Bonny Roolz and she wears blue-black mussel-shell powder eyeshadow and black squid ink lipstick. Serafina disguises herself with a sleek, edgy pixie cut with a spiky fringe, pointed at her cheekbones, dyed black, wearing a long, clingy grey dress, with the arms cut off and the neckline slashed. Over it, she wore a loosely-knit black tunic, bicycle chains with her dagger, silver hoop earrings, black eyeliner, black squid-ink lipstick and a dusting of crushed abalone shell on her lips. Trivia * Sea silk is a real-life material, made from threads of a gland in the foot of pen shells (typically Pinna Nobilis). It is extremely rare and valuable, and is known as Byssus. * Sea flax is also a real material. Category:Merpeople